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Noelle woke up feeling refreshed. A complete 180 compared to yesterday, when she woke up feeling like death warmed over. Runny nose, slightly sore throat, mild cough, the works. A pretty rough case of hay fever, all things considered.
Honestly, she hasn’t really been feeling great the past few days, but she just chalked it up to being tired. Yesterday gave her the idea that she may have been getting sick.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t really get sick days unless she was incredibly ill (anything before outright throwing up was usually a no go), so she had gone to school anyways.
It had cleared up by third period, further proving that it was just hay fever, so it wasn’t the worst. And now, she felt perfectly normal, so it worked out.
She got up, got dressed for school, ate breakfast, and waited next to the front gate.
After several minutes, she checked her watch impatiently (and uselessly, because the hands were perpetually stuck. She should really get that checked). Checking her phone revealed that school started soon. But Kris wasn’t here.
The two of them started walking to school together again, like when they were kids. Sometimes, it was the highlight of her day. But, it seemed that Kris was either gonna be late, or wasn’t coming at all.
She sighed. She couldn’t hold it against them, they were an incredibly deep sleeper. Noelle thought that sleeping through alarms was an overexaggeration that people said, (because the faintest buzz of her phone would keep her awake, so like, how do you sleep through an entire alarm?), but she was truly shocked to see Kris just… not wake up as their alarm was blaring from their phone.
So, yeah. Non-zero chance they were gonna be late.
Oh well. She could live one walk without her partner.
She giggled to herself. Partner. It was such a serious term when they were just dating, but it made Noelle feel giddy. Kris was serious, and she was also serious.
One day, they wouldn’t just be partners, but marriage partners. Maybe it was early to think about that, but the thought made her feel all warm and fuzzy.
Wow she had it bad… She couldn’t even feel shame, because she knew that Kris also had it bad.
It’s been so long since the last time she had a genuine, unforced smile, but these days they seemed to come all too easily.
Her pleasant mood dampened when she arrived at school. Schools tended to have that effect on people.
She got to school on time (as opposed to incredibly early), and the rest of class was already in the classroom. Except for Kris, of course.
By the time class started… Kris still wasn’t here. Even five minutes later, nothing.
She ‘stealthily’ got her phone out to text Kris. ‘Stealthily’ because, well, she sat at the front. So it’s not exactly like she could hide this from Ms. Alphys. But, even if she were to get caught, Ms. Alphys wouldn’t actually do anything, so Noelle didn’t really care.
Noelle shares a house with her mother. She has done much riskier things for significantly less benefit.
She kept it quick anyways.
Everything alright? You aren’t at school :(
Short and sweet. Now, she had to wait. And wait she did, because she didn’t get a response during class. The bell rang again, signalling the next period, and Noelle was still responseless.
This sucked.
~ ~ ~
Between periods, Susie approached her. “Dude. Where is Kris?”
“I’m not sure.” Noelle said. She then winced, that came out way more pathetic than she wanted it to.
She wasn’t… clingy, was she?
Considering she could ask herself that question, probably not, but it did make her pause.
Susie groaned. “If I knew they were skipping I wouldn't be here…”
If Noelle knew they were skipping, she… would still be here. Because her mother may actually kill her if she missed school for a ‘frivolous reason’. Instead, Noelle would be more annoyed, and less worried, because she would know that Kris was just messing around.
But for now? She had no idea what they were doing.
The day continued to pass at a snail's pace.
At lunch, Noelle and Susie reconvened to share what they knew. Which was almost nothing. But, Susie did learn something very important.
“Toriel’s car isn’t in the parking lot.”
Oh. Toriel wasn’t here either. She wouldn’t leave the kindergarten class without a teacher without a good reason, so…
This felt significantly more real all of a sudden. Static encroached her vision. Why wouldn’t they be here? Her mind went to everything that could have gone wrong. Her mind immediately plunged into the worst– They were gone. She would never see them again just like they would never see her–
She shook her head and took a deep breath. There was no reason to go there. Not yet, at least, not without information.
She would just have to find out what's going on, later. No reason to spiral now, especially since she still had a few periods ahead of her.
…Unfortunately, she would only be able to get answers after school was done.
This still really sucked.
~ ~ ~
Mercifully, she got an answer much sooner. During the last period of the day, her phone buzzed.
Completely ignoring what Alphys was saying (it was English class after all, one of Noelle’s best subjects. She could afford to slack off right now), she checked her phone.
She was greeted by a single misspelled word.
hoptal
Just seeing a reply made it feel like Noelle could breathe again. She was worrying for nothing! Then, she actually read the word, and felt that maybe the prior worry was founded.
Oh no! What’s wrong?
i am incredibly ill
She… really didn’t like it when her loved ones were sick. Well, Noelle would like to think no one does, but she really didn’t like it.
She wasn’t a very big fan of hospitals.
She drummed her fingers against her desk impatiently. She couldn’t tell if this was Kris being dramatic (as they sometimes were) or if they were like, actually dying.
She really hoped it wasn’t the second one.
it is ““just”” a cold
But we had to go to the city cuz there aren’t any human specialists at home and I was rocking a 103 fever
Yikes, this must have been an all day thing. The city isn’t terribly far, but it’s far enough to the point that Noelle has never been. Mixing in an unplanned doctor's visit sounds like the recipe for a pretty awful day.
Also 103 fever? Jeez, that’s high.
That’s really high!
Are you feeling any better?
a little i guess
sorry for not responding earlier
It’s okay :( I hope you feel better!!!
The bell rang and Noelle had to physically stop herself from sprinting out of class. She got up, gathered her things, and left in a normal and orderly (and anxious) fashion
School just ended, do you mind if I come over?
misery loves company
Noelle hummed to herself. If they still had a sense of humor then they had to be at least one third okay. She wants that number to be higher but at least that’s not zero?
i would feel bad if i got you sick though
Don’t worry, I won’t
that’s something you have zero control over and yet I believe you
“Hey, did Kris text you?”
Noelle literally jumped. She got a little too lost in her phone that she didn’t notice Susie approach. Her hooves landed on the ground with a noticeable clack.
She attempted to ignore the stares she had garnered. It wasn’t working.
Noelle turned around and cleared her throat awkwardly. “Yeah.”
“Cool. Was it like… understandable?”
“Um, yeah? Why?”
“Well, they texted me, and what I got was not understandable. Like at all.” She squinted at her screen. “They just sent ‘instead of eating shrimps with wimps you should be eating lobster with a mobster’.”
Ah. Kris was sick enough to just start deliriously regurgitating stuff at people.
“They text very deliriously when they’re sick.” Noelle nodded sagely. Last time they got sick, she woke up to two texts on her phone. ‘You are my favorite friend shaped guy’ and ‘I lub you’.
Considering they barely talked at all at that point, Noelle may or may not have shed tears of joy at their rare display of honesty(?).
It gave her the courage to really try to mend things, and things mended a little too well because they were certainly dating now! Funny how that happens!
“Oh they’re sick?”
“Yeah. Did they not mention it?”
“No, they were too busy texting me whatever this is.” Susie gestured at her phone. It then buzzed again. She glared at the screen. “I swear to god. Look at this.”
She held her phone out. The most recent text read, ‘stop eating po’ boys with the low boys and come eat some broccoli and beef with the commander in chief.’
“What does that even mean?” Susie looked incredulous. “The hell's a po’ boy?”
She actually knew that one. “It’s a type of sandwich, typically with seafood or deli meat on it, with a specific type of french bread.”
Susie pondered. “...Shit that sounds pretty good. Maybe I do want to eat po’ boys with the low boys.” She said quietly. Her phone buzzed mid ponder, and she sighed. “Okay now they're just sending me emojis that I didn’t know existed.”
Noelle tilted her head. “Like?”
Susie showed Noelle her phone again. “It’s like a rock. Thing.”
“...That’s a curling stone.” Noelle said. Susie looked lost, so she added. “For curling. The sport.”
“What the hell is curling?” She mumbled. Noelle was about to explain but Susie said, “y’know what, I don’t wanna know. You go make Kris is like. Alive and stuff. See you, dude.”
Susie waved goodbye, and started heading towards the… school closet. For some reason.
Noelle shrugged. Not really her business.
~ ~ ~
A faint anxiety buzzed through her as she walked towards Kris’s house. There wasn’t a particular reason, she just really hated that they were sick.
The walk wasn’t very long, but it certainly felt long.
When she reached her house’s gate, she got out her phone and texted her mom that she would be at Kris’s. She picked her phone back up, because she knew that the response, if there even was one, would only be positive.
Frankly, her mom seemed to trust Kris more than her sometimes. Which was a little insane because Noelle was literally her daughter.
Going anywhere else she had to double, sometimes triple check with her mom. It was a hassle, and she’s only gotten worse ever since her dad got sick. But Kris’s house? She barely had to ask.
Back when Noelle told her mom that her and Kris had started dating, she actually gave a positive reply. Frankly, the only time she got those were when she got all As. But the way she said it was stuck in Noelle’s head.
“They have a good head on their shoulders.” Carol had said. “I’m happy for you.”
That response had made her stop in her tracks because… were they talking about the same Kris? The same Kris that’s tried to convince her they were dying when they had pretty much any red liquid? The same Kris that had broken a frankly alarming amount of bones because they kept falling out of trees? They had a good head on their shoulders?
Sure, they grew out of most of that, they weren’t kids anymore, but… why would her mom know that?
A part of her was glad that Carol ‘approved’ of Kris, Noelle would be in a world of heartache if she didn’t, but like… what?
It’s like she knew something Noelle didn’t. Like Kris was some helpful ally in a conspiracy, entrusted and capable of executing an important goal. Or something like that.
Or she just likes them more than her own daughter.
Non-zero chance.
It didn’t bother her.
(It bothered her a lot.)
It didn’t matter right now, what did matter was that Kris wasn’t feeling well and Noelle had to go check up on them.
With her phone in her pocket, she started walking down the Dreemurr’s driveway.
Once she reached the door, she knocked.
She waited.
…
Then, the door opened.
“Oh, Noelle, dear, what a surprise.” Toriel said.
“Hello, Ms. Toriel.” Noelle waved. She tried to hide the way her jaw clenched, she’s just been called ‘dear’ a few too many times for one lifetime. “I heard Kris wasn’t feeling well.”
“Yes, they have quite the cold.” Toriel said with a frown. She then walked out of the way of the door frame. “Come in, I’m sure they will appreciate the company. Just, do take care not to get sick yourself.”
“I’ll be careful.” Noelle nodded.
She entered the house.
Walking through the living room to the kitchen, she stopped briefly. The Dreemurr’s house always smelled like cinnamon, but right now the smell of something savory overpowered it.
Her gaze drifted to the stove, where her eyes landed on a pot of soup. Noelle couldn’t tell what type based on sight or smell alone, but if she had to guess, she would say it was chicken noodle. A valuable resource to fight against the common cold.
Afterwards, she went up the stairs.
On the second floor, she noticed how cold and quiet it was. It was always quiet up stairs, but knowing that Kris wasn’t feeling well made the silence more unsettling than comforting.
She knocked on Kris’s door three times in succession. She heard a faint and scratchy “come in,” which Noelle did.
Her eyes immediately landed on Kris. Their hair was splayed out on their pillow, some of it sticking to their face. Her eyes drifted and noticed the trash can and tissues beside them. They laid in their bed completely straight, with their arms folded over their chest. Noelle snorted at the sight.
They shifted from their bed. “Is my suffering funny or something?” Kris said, voice sounding strained.
She winced slightly. “You just look like a dying Victorian child.”
That got a breathy laugh out of them. Which immediately put them into a coughing fit. Noelle walked closer, only for Kris to grab her arm gently. “My darling. I do not know if I will survive to see the ‘morrow.” They said extremely dramatically. “Promise me you’ll… you’ll… uh…” They trailed off.
“Damn. This ‘last words’ thing is harder than it looks.”
Noelle shook her head fondly, moving her arm to where instead of Kris holding on to her arm, they were homing onto her hand. She rubbed circles on their hand. “Well, it’s a good thing you aren’t dying anytime soon.” She said with a sweet smile.
“As long as the plague doesn’t claim me.” They said completely straight. “Actually wait, I thought of something.” They looked her in the eyes. “If I fall victim to this terrible malaise, look after Ralsei for me.”
Noelle nodded sagely. “I… don’t know who that is?”
Kris looked very confused by this revelation. They brought their arm away from Noelle, scratching their head and leaving her in a crouch. “You don’t? You’ve definitely met him though. During the…” They appeared to have a split second of spontaneous lucidity, before their expression went back to looking miserable. “No, wait. Yeah no you didn’t, that was a dream.”
Kris must be a lot sicker than they looked if they were confusing dreams with reality already.
“What’s he like?”
“He’s… Nice. Kind. Fluffy.” They trailed off. “Honestly I’m not sure how to describe him.”
Their pensive expression turned into a wide smile, and Noelle just had a gut feeling she was about to hear something utterly ridiculous.
“He definitely would have the Ebenezer Scrooge fit. Like he’d hear a sound in the night and he’d have a candle or a lantern or something and he’d go “who goes there” or something.”
That was… incredibly specific. Yet, it painted a very clear picture, despite Kris not actually giving her any physical descriptors other than ‘fluffy’.
“I mean, from what you’re saying, he sounds nice.” Noelle said reassuringly. Noelle honestly isn’t sure where Kris met this ‘Ralsei’ character, because frankly, they don’t do much, but she’s glad Kris has friends. She doesn't really see them hang out with anyone other than herself and Susie.
“He is.” Kris wistfully. “I think he’s my tulpa.”
The way Kris said that almost made that sentence make sense. Almost. Except for the part where that was a completely and utterly insane thing to say. “What?”
“I don’t know, he’s like eighty percent my idealized self. Maybe closer to seventy.” They started to raise their fingers as they listed out the problems. “Only issues are that he’s like, a boy. And nearsighted. And at this point if I was a monster I would want to be a dog and not like my family.”
Kris was very rambly when they were sick. She kinda wished they were like this more often, and not only when they were on enough cold medicine to knock out a horse.
“He already has issues when it comes to being his own person, though, so don’t tell him I said that.” They mumbled.
“I… won’t?”
“That was a weird thing to say, huh?”
She kinda agreed. She would really like to know what exactly ‘Ralsei’ being their tulpa… meant? Was he… real? He didn’t really sound real. But, trying to press on something with someone who was sick was mean. And frankly, Kris has said stranger while in perfect health. “On the tier list of strange things you’ve said to me, that’s like a low A or a high B.”
“Huh. That’s lower than I thought.”
“You have to say some pretty outlandish stuff to get into S tier.” Noelle said. “Like that time we ranked the random encounter and bosses from Dragon Blazers based on how hot they are.”
Kris’s face was red but Noelle couldn’t tell if that was the fever or if they were embarrassed. “Tier lists are an expression from the soul.”
She agreed. She truly loved ranking things. But… “You wanted to put the water cooler in S.” There were other parts of that tier list that she argued, but that was more due to personal preference. Though the two of them shared an attraction to strong women, some of the other enemy designs struck different cords.
With that in mind, she heavily disagreed with Kris’s placement of the watercooler enemy. “It’s just a regular water cooler? Like as far as joke enemies go… that’s just a water cooler.”
“Please stop kicking me while I’m down.” They whined.
“Sorry…” She could continue this when they weren’t ailing. And wow, she got really side tracked really fast. “Gosh, I almost forgot, how are you feeling?”
Kris gave her a look.
“You said you had a cold and a fever, but that isn’t very specific.”
They gave her a thumbs down. “All fever-y and my throat kinda hurts. Otherwise fine.”
“Aw, I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. It’s not like you got me sick, anyways.” Kris mumbled. “You never get sick, you and your perfect immune system,” they grumbled under their breath.
“Hey, it’s not perfect.” Noelle crossed her arms. “This past week I kept getting hay fever like, every morning.”
Kris looked like they had a realization. “...Are you sure that you had hay fever?”
“I mean, it went away almost instantly so… I kinda thought so?”
“How long has this been happening…?”
“Like… roughly a week? It always cleared up after noon, though.”
She could see the gears turn in their head. And Noelle was starting to come to her own conclusions.
Kris’s hazy stare turned sharp. “Do you remember what we did two days ago?”
“In… uh… the old classroom?” She tried to feign ignorance. But, she remembers that very well.
Uh oh.
“We literally made out for like an hour.” Kris said plainly. Noelle looked away and blushed, because hey, you can’t just say stuff like that! “You’re trying to kill me.”
“Hey! I’m not trying to kill you.” She argued. “I love you too much to do that.”
“You made an attempt on my life.” They grumbled. “You and your immune system making you almost entirely immune to a cold.”
“I’m sorry?” She did feel pretty sorry, there was a pretty significant chance that they did get her sick, but… she didn’t really feel sorry for having a strong immune system?
Kris just sighed. Then, they smiled slightly. “At least this means I can’t get you sick.”
If she was just sick, then she wouldn’t be able to get sick for a little while. So, they were right.
“When was the last time you got sick? Besides the past few days I guess.” Kris asked.
“I don’t remember.” Nothing obvious came to mind. “It’s been a while.”
“Your immune system is so good you don’t even remember…” They whined.
“There there…” She said, reaching over to pat their head. “Is there anything I can do for you right now?”
Kris thought. “Can you get me a water bottle? Kinda thirsty.”
“Sure. It’s where they always are, right?”
“In a cabinet in the kitchen.” Kris confirmed. “Cold water may kill me.”
She stood up, and briefly walked out of the room to the kitchen.
She nodded at Toriel when she got a water bottle from the kitchen, which was about as close as she could get to saying hi without actually saying hi, and then returned to Kris’s room.
She went to hand the bottle over to Kris, but she knew them a little too well. They would try drinking it while lying down, and they would get water everywhere.
So instead she reached for their arm. They offered it to her, allowing her to pull them into a sitting position. They shivered slightly from being unearthed from their covers.
Knowing that Kris was significantly less likely to spill it now, she offered the bottle. They gingerly took it out of her hands, clammy fingers wrapping around the plastic. They took a few cautious sips. They winced slightly after each gulp, but that’s just how sore throats worked. Everything hurt, even water. Noelled suddenly felt a little bit worse for accidently getting them sick.
They went to put the bottle on their bedside table. They almost missed, but Noelle was able to redirect their arm before they bumped the side of the bottle against the edge of the table. “Thanks bro.” They said, sounding slightly less raspy than a few moments ago.
They then had an indescribable expression, before it turned into something that looked vaguely like remorse. (Vaguely, because all of their expressions were muted by the sheer misery on their face.) “Sorry for calling you bro you are my girlfriend and I love you.”
Noelle cleared her throat to stop herself from making any other embarrassing noises. “It’s fine.”
Kris was looking at her. This was not rare, they spent a lot of time looking at her, but it looked like they wanted to say something.
“You got me sick.” They reiterated.
She winced. “Probably.”
“So I can’t get you sick.”
She nodded, “yeah.”
They hopped, shifting sideways, until they were pressed against the wall. They patted the empty space next to them. “Hop in.”
She hesitated. “...Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“If you can’t get sick then I don’t see why not.” When Noelle stood there unconvinced, Kris added, “please?”
She probably shouldn’t.
They then blinked their red doe eyes at her. Which just wasn’t fair because hey, wasn’t she the deer here?
Well. She couldn’t say no to that..
She walked over and crawled into the bed next to them.
They immediately clung onto her.
When fever was a threat, this probably wasn’t the best idea? But, Noelle naturally ran cold, even despite all the fur, so maybe it’s fine…?
If nothing else Kris seemed to be much more comfortable.
They lied like that for a good bit, the only noise being Kris’s soft, uneven breathing. But after a few minutes, Noelle had an idea.
“Well, I have an idea to take your mind off of being sick.” She said, as she shifted around to grab her phone from her pocket. She opened her web browser, and typed in a few words. Then, she clicked on a video. “I always come back to this whenever I’m feeling down.” Sickness, sadness, it didn’t matter. Her favorite video had her back.
Kris squinted at the thumbnail of the video, which was the first part of a horror game playthrough. “I think we have different definitions of comfort.” Kris said. They used a clammy finger to press play anyway.
“Hello everybody my name is Market Pliers, and welcome to–” The intro said, a monster with a pink mustache’s voice spilling from her phone’s speakers.
Kris decided to get more comfortable by placing their head in the crook of Noelle’s shoulder.
Very frequently, Noelle treated Kris like a very large plushie, clinging on and never letting go. She could return the favor for once.
The video continued to play for a while. She noticed that Kris’s grip on her had slackened, and looked over at them. She was greeted by closed eyes and a slight snore. They were also… drooling slightly.
Gross, but also kinda cute in its own way?
One of the jumpscares in the video was coming up. She decided to pause the video, because either the jumpscare itself would wake them up, or her reaction to it would.
She was fine pausing it anyways. Her arm was starting to hurt from holding her phone up.
Though, she got a little bored almost immediately. Her attention span could use some work. She got her phone back out again.
With Kris out cold (out warm?), Noelle scrolled through her phone mindlessly.
Ooh. A Dragon Blazers I challenge run? Perfect way to spend the next half hour. She very slowly got some earbuds out of her pocket and watched the video.
After what could only have been a few minutes, she heard a noise. She barely suppressed a flinch, her desire to not wake Kris beating her inherent jumpiness.
She looked up at the source, the door opening. Toriel peeked a head in, before entering. She held a bowl of soup, and was also giving Noelle a look.
Her words from earlier bounced around her head. Take care to not get sick yourself. She had said.
Noelle… kinda sorta listened? She knew with near certainty she wouldn’t catch this cold. But from Toriel’s perspective, she certainly walked in on Kris clinging to Noelle like she was a plush. And drooling on her sweater slightly.
Direct body contact with someone who was sick probably didn’t inspire confidence!
“Okay, so, we uh, figured out that I probably got them sick.” Noelle whispered nervously. “So you don’t have to worry about me getting sick?”
Toriel’s look became even more confused, but she didn’t say anything, so Noelle kept whispering. “I’ve um, had like, a small hay fever the past few days? But it seems like it might’ve been a cold actually.” She stifled a nervous laugh, because again, right next to Kris. Who wasn’t stirring at all, but she wouldn’t like to test that.
Instead she just smiled nervously, like a horror movie character who knew that she was going to be murdered imminently. But, instead of being a deranged killer, Toriel was calm, with a combination of an awkward and judging expression. And instead of wielding like, an axe or something, she wielded soup.
“I see.” Toriel said, with a completely neutral inflection. “Well, the next time they’re awake, tell them the soup is ready.”
She gave one more look at the two cuddly teenagers. “I will bring this back downstairs so it won’t get cold.”
She closed the door.
Well. Noelle doesn’t think she’s ever gonna live that down…
It most certainly could have gone worse, but getting caught in this situation at all made Noelle want to crawl in a hole and die.
Kris’s continuous hold on her sweater made her think that perhaps she was being a bit dramatic.
~ ~ ~
Kris did not wake up for a while.
It got to the point that it was almost concerning, and if they slept for too much longer they weren’t going to be able to sleep tonight, but then, suddenly, they grabbed onto her shirt.
“Kris…?” She whispered.
They didn’t quite look awake, but they certainly weren’t asleep, either.
Kris stared at her with half lidded, teary(?) eyes. “You don’t wear shoes.” They said with a voice full of… heartbreak?
Noelle’s brain buffered. Kris was correct… but like… what on earth did they mean by that? Why would they say that with a voice filled with grief?
“I couldn’t find your glass slipper. You didn’t have one”
That’s… that’s from a movie.
…Why on earth were they dreaming about Cinderella of all things?
“You left… You’re gone forever…”
Okay she had to say something but like… what was she supposed to say in this situation???
Should she try to wake them up…? Or, well, they don’t really look asleep, and they are sick so they're probably a tad delirious, so…
Maybe she should just play along?
“Uhm, don't worry. How about I find your glass slipper instead?”
That seemed to calm them. At least to the point that they weren’t outright crying anymore.
“That sounds good. You’d make a better prince than I would anyways.” They murmured. “I dunno how to wear heels though.”
Noelle couldn’t help them in that department, she didn’t know either. It’s already been established that she doesn’t wear shoes period, and with how heels were, she isn't even sure if those could be custom made for hooves. It wasn’t something she was ever gonna find out, but she needed to say something else to reassure Kris.
“If they’re magic slippers, you can probably just walk in them normally. Cause they’re magic.”
The words registered in Kris’s head. The tension left them. “Okay.”
Their breathing immediately evened out and… well. That. Happened. She’s pretty sure they fell back asleep.
Given that entire situation, Noelle turned and brought a hand to Kris’s forehead. It was warm to the touch, but not that warm. It wasn’t really a surprise that they ran a fever again, it probably was gonna happen anyway, but sharing a bed probably wasn’t helping.
She should probably get up and get them a cool rag or something. The only problem is that there was a pretty solid chance Kris would start crying if she left them alone.
They really were burning up though…
She would just have to be fast.
She patted them on the head, and then got off the bed.
She was returned only a minute later, with a slightly damp and more importantly cold rag in hand.
Kris’s eyes cracked open. They felt around the bed with their arm, frown, and then looked at Noelle. They then smiled.
Wordlessly, Noelle moved their hair out of their face, and applied the rag directly to their forehead.
“Where would I be without my doting girlfriend.” They said dreamily. They then started laughing. “Doting… doeing.”
Noelle winced. She was… never escaping deer related puns, was she?
At the very least, Kris both did so infrequently, and at the very least was innovative.
Comparatively, if she heard someone call her ‘dear’ one more time she was gonna snap.
With that last little quip, and the rag to help with their fever, they managed to fall back asleep.
She did not join them, this time, their fever needed to go down. Instead, she went to the other side of the room and sat on Asriel’s bed.
She watched the gentle rise and fall of their chest before she returned to her phone.
~ ~ ~
After a little while longer, Kris’s eyes snapped open. Noelle jumped as she heard their hand slap against their nightstand. They knocked over their water bottle (thank goodness it still had the cap) and picked up their phone.
Kris then started typing furiously. Noelle has never seen them with such speed before.
“Um, good morning Cinderella.”
That made them pause.
“...if you’re comparing a sleeping person to a princess, wouldn't it usually be sleeping beauty?”
“Maybe normally, but you seemed so concerned that you couldn’t find my ‘glass slipper’, until I told you that I could find yours.”
Their face flushed, and Noelle couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or if their fever was getting worse again. “I don’t remember that.”
Noelle wasn’t really sure if she believed that. But, to give them the benefit of the doubt, she said, “you were pretty out of it.”
They didn’t respond, instead going back to their phone.
“...Whatcha doing?”
“Crazy dream. Need to write it down before I forget.” They said as they continued to type. “I think I need to make a video game.”
Once again, that was a normal statement, but the context made her pause. “What?”
“In my dream, I saw an ending, and like… whoa.” Kris looked and sounded star struck.
“Can you tell me about it?”
They looked up from their phone. “Of course.”